First
by ifallthraindrops
Summary: Just because you leave the house, that doesn't mean you leave the memories. Yet another post Season Five Finale ficlet. One shot, just my spin on it. RR please!


Disclaimer: Dun own it. Do you need it in song form?

A/N: Just a one shot to take a break from other fics…

First

As he paced in front of her, ranting about how to keep _her_ daughter in school, it finally hit her. In a moment of absolute clarity, she saw it. She had it. It, the whole package, love, comfort, and safety. It had been there all along, even when she hadn't noticed. How could she miss something that was right in front of her nose all along?

She just stared at him, a pensive look decorating her features. Finally, he noticed the look she gave him and stopped. "What?"

"Luke," she said, knowing at that moment that she was absolutely right, "will you marry me?"

He just looked at her. "What?"

She repeated herself, looking up into his eyes and wishing she knew what he was thinking.

But all he said was, "I have to get the house back." He rushed out of the diner, his face blank.

Lorelai's moment of lucidness was gone, and it was her turn to be confused. She followed Luke outside and across the street, dodging the bikers.

"Taylor!" Luke shouted, "Taylor, I need the house back!"

Taylor stopped scolding the bikers to turn to Luke and say, "Well, your request to injunction the papers on the house needed to be submitted in writing. Word of mouth means nothing in law."

Lorelai, slightly out of breath, stepped between them and said, "Okay, guys, I have to interrupt. What house?"

"You mean you haven't told her?" There was an almost gleeful look on Taylor's face. "Well, I'll just leave you two alone then." He wandered away, yelling at more bikers and Kirk, who had somehow managed to tangle himself in a bike he knocked over.

Lorelai put a hand on her hip. "At the risk of pulling an 'I Love Lucy', you got some 'splainin' to do." She took him by the hand and pulled him back towards the diner. Once inside, she sat him down at her recently vacated chair and stood over him, her arms crossed. "Well?"

Luke looked up at her, and Lorelai had to admit that embarrassed Luke was kind of fun. After a moment of silence, he said, "I bought the Twickham House." She didn't say anything but waited for him to continue. "For us. And maybe…" He trailed off, but Lorelai still knew what he meant.

"The kids…" she breathed in another moment of clarity. "But why do you have to get it back? What was Taylor talking about, a written injunction?"

Luke just stared at his hands. "I retracted the offer. You were thinking of selling the inn and you're mulling and everything…I didn't think that you wanted to settle down with a house and everything."

Lorelai just chuckled, but she said seriously, "Luke, I could never sell my inn. That inn is my baby. Sookie, Michel, and I built it from the ground up, metaphorically anyway. I love it almost as much as I love…" She stopped herself. She had been about to say _you_. And she knew she loved him. And she knew he loved her too. But she couldn't make the words come out the way she wanted them to. She was never one for expressing emotions. So instead, she just finished, "coffee."

She could have sworn she saw a flicker of almost…disappointment pass through his eyes, but it was gone so fast she couldn't be sure.

"So you're finished mulling?" She nodded, and he got up from the chair and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close. She kissed him softly, her arms around his neck.

She pulled away after a moment, a thought coming to her. "I have a house, you know. You could just move into mine."

Luke stepped back and Lorelai could sense a full out Luke-rant coming on. "Exactly," he began, beginning to pace again. "That's _your_ house. You raised _your_ daughter there, and, even though she's made some not so smart decisions lately, you still raised her to be the greatest kid. That was a whole section of your life that I wasn't a part of. You have all of your memories in that house." He paused to come back over to her and take her in his arms again. "With you and me…I want a clean slate. I want us to have new memories, and I don't want to intrude on the old ones."

Lorelai blinked back tears, touched. Before he could start again, she interrupted, "Luke, you've been as much a part of that house as anyone living there. You've fixed just about everything that can be fixed there, you stay over practically all of the time anyway, and I…" she trailed off. He was right, her memories were there. And she didn't want to leave them behind.

"Lorelai, just because you leave the house, that doesn't mean you leave the memories too," Luke told her.

"I know," said Lorelai softly, and she did. She knew he was right. Maybe it was time to move on, to start a new chapter in her life. And truth be told, that house did remind her of Rory, and that was a memory she wasn't quite ready to deal with just yet.

Luke let her go for a moment to take something out of his pocket. "Lorelai, I bought the house because, well, I wanted to ask you first, but…" He got down on one knee and opened the box. "Lorelai Gilmore, will you marry me?"

Lorelai had to smile through her tears. Luke had an uncanny ability to always brighten up her day or make her smile when she was down solely by always being there. She pulled him up off of the floor, kissed him deeply and said, her forehead leaning against his, "I asked you first."

A/N: So what'd ya think? Please r/r!


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